Israeli authorities demolish home in unrecognized Bedouin village in Negev

Aug. 22, 2017 5:52 P.M. (Updated: Aug. 22, 2017 5:52 P.M.)

Bedouin woman sits in front of the ruins of her family house in the Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev Desert, north of Beersheva, 2010 (AFP/David Buimovitch/File)

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli bulldozers, escorted by Israeli police forces, demolished a home in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wadi al-Niam in the Negev region of southern Israel on Tuesday morning, according to Palestinian media.

Arab 48 new outlet reported that the home belonged to the al-Walidi family.

An Israeli police spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Residents of Wadi al-Niam are among tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins living in what the Israeli government has deemed as “unrecognized” villages in the Negev, and as a result face ongoing displacement at the hands of Israeli authorities.

Because Bedouins generally lack titles to the lands their ancestors have historically grazed and lived on, it is difficult for them to prove their right to live and work on the lands, which were declared property of the state of Israel in 1948.

Rights groups have claimed that the demolitions in Bedouin villages are a central Israeli policy aimed at removing the indigenous Palestinian population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned townships to make room for the expansion of Jewish-Israeli communities.